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Tag Archives: boyhood

The 2018 Sundance Film Festival kicked off yesterday in Park City, Utah, at the Sundance Mountain Resort. Every year the festival plays host to an impressive array of independent films, both foreign and domestic, and has featured such successful films as Blood Simple, Hoosiers, Reservoir Dogs, Clerks, Memento, 28 Days Later, SuperSize Me, Boyhood, and more recent notables like Dope, Mudbound, and Wind River (just to name a few!). Sundance not only presents feature-length films but also shorts and documentaries, and presents awards in such categories as acting, cinematography, screenwriting, directing, and short-filmmaking. The 2018 celebration will showcase 110 feature-length films from 29 countries; 47 of those films come from first-time filmmakers, out of a pool of 13,468 total submissions, including features, shorts, and documentaries. Some of this years more anticipated entries include Juliet Naked, Wildlife, Heart Beats Loud, The Catcher Was a Spy, and documentaries like Akicita: The Battle of Standing Rock, and Our New President. The 2018 celebration, however, comes at the helm of the whirlwind that was 2017. Continue reading →

Four-time Oscar-nominee Ethan Hawke (Training Day, Boyhood) will be on the big screen again this month with a limited release of his biographical-documentary Seymour: An Introduction. The film was first seen at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2014 and then at the New York Film Festival in the United States, and now will see a limited public theatrical release on Friday, March 13th. Musician/piano-teacher Seymour Bernstein, who left his career as a concert-pianist to become a teacher, is the focus of this documentary as he shares stories and insights from his life with director Hawke. This is Ethan Hawke’s first directing project since The Hottest State in 2006, a movie he adapted from his own novel of the same name following a young actor trying to make his name in New York City while coping with his relationship with his singer/songwriter girlfriend. Be sure to check for theaters in your area that may be showing Seymour this Friday.

In 2002, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater began shooting scenes for a movie that was to take twelve years to complete. Linklater, who is known for such films as Dazed and Confused (1993) and The School of Rock (2003), is directing the film, which follows a boy all the way from his childhood to his young adult years. The idea was to film scenes at various points throughout the production, showing the actors actually aging with their characters in real time. Ethan Hawke began filming when he was 33 years old. Having just completed the film he is now 43, while his co-star is now 19, having started shooting at the age of 7. Many have speculated that this style of filming may lead many to expect a documentary-style film like Cloverfield or Paranormal Activity, but the filmmakers have maintained that it will not be a documentary. With shooting set to completely wrap-up this November, reports are saying that the film, thus far known as The 12-Year Project, Boyhood, or Growing Up, could be set for release as early as 2014, and may even make the cut in time to showcase the Cannes or Sundance Film Festivals. With all the recycling that’s being done in Hollywood right now, it’s always refreshing to see filmmakers take on an original concept for film. Keep an eye out for more on the release!